3 research outputs found
Crowdsourcing Knowledge: An Extension Approach for Remunerative and Sustainable Home Garden Farming Systems in Kerala
Get PDFKerala has pioneered development models through farmer participatory approaches. Involving the grassroots in scientific studies can help improve crop variety adoption and refined technology recommendations. Participatory tools like Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), Participatory Technology Development (PTD), On Farm Testing (OFT), Front Line Demonstrations (FLD) and Participatory Breeding Programmes (PBP) are all time-tested examples of its successful use in researches. Crowdsourced citizen science approach called tricot – ‘triadic comparisons of technologies’ is popular today, where farmers are made to adopt three crop varieties or technologies randomly assigned to them from a broader set of varieties/technologies for final choice aimed at continuous adoption. The results of this study conducted during 2019-2020 revealed that more than 80% of the farmers fully adopted the technology prescribed in the checklist as a result of crowdsourcing knowledge. The results on attitude of farmers towards crowdsourcing revealed that majority of the farmers posessed favourable attitude towards crowdsourcing approach
The diversity profile of pepper and banana based high range home gardens
No full text307-313Kerala, renowned for its rich biodiversity, is endowed with home garden based agroecosystems which act as a reservoir
to satisfy the escalating food, nutritional and economic demands of the people. The home gardens on the high range area are
of typical, with complex biodiversity profile, peculiar ecological and edaphic factors. In this context, the overriding
objective of the present study was to identify and analyze the diversity profile of the high range home gardens and also to
compare the species diversity of different crop based home gardens in the high range area. The results of diversity index
using Shannon and Weaners diversity index revealed that the total diversity (H’t) of the home garden was high (H’t=4.443
and H’t=5.907) in ‘pepper and banana’-based home gardens respectively, however the mean total biodiversity index (H’m)
that could be considered as the real measure of biodiversity was (H’m=1.481 and H’m=1.969) which indicated that high
range home gardens that was once considered to mimic the forest ecosystems with high biodiversity, is now attributing
declining trends in diversity profile. However, the crop abundance profile disclosed that the high-value crops viz., spices and
plantation crops dominated the home gardens of high range areas which subjugated the diversity of vegetables and tubers
which act as the pillars of food security
The diversity profile of pepper and banana based high range home gardens in Kerala
Get PDFKerala, renowned for its rich biodiversity, is endowed with home garden based agroecosystems which act as a reservoir to satisfy the escalating food, nutritional and economic demands of the people. The home gardens on the high range area are of typical, with complex biodiversity profile, peculiar ecological and edaphic factors. In this context, the overriding objective of the present study was to identify and analyze the diversity profile of the high range home gardens and also to compare the species diversity of different crop based home gardens in the high range area. The results of diversity index using Shannon and Weaners diversity index revealed that the total diversity (H’t) of the home garden was high (H’t=4.443 and H’t=5.907) in ‘pepper and banana’-based home gardens respectively, however the mean total biodiversity index (H’m) that could be considered as the real measure of biodiversity was (H’m=1.481 and H’m=1.969) which indicated that high range home gardens that was once considered to mimic the forest ecosystems with high biodiversity, is now attributing declining trends in diversity profile. However, the crop abundance profile disclosed that the high-value crops viz., spices and plantation crops dominated the home gardens of high range areas which subjugated the diversity of vegetables and tubers which act as the pillars of food security.
